USS Abraham Lincoln sailor wears E-4 Mafia patch while on duty

Behind every great warship stands a young sailor with a moustache, a cap that may or may not get shouted at, depending on the weather or the time of day, and an aggressive disposition that is somewhere between humor and masochism.

We give you the E-4, the average American military guy. In this case, he’s an operations specialist aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, proudly, no, fearlessly standing guard with a vibrant patch on the right sleeve of his jacket that practically screams, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”

And if you take a closer look at the photo, which was released by the Navy on August 31, you will see the following:

The sailor wears both an emblem from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is currently in the Middle East and within the U.S. Central Command area of ​​operations, and a third-class petty officer insignia, which has been, shall we say, revamped with a bit of razzle-dazzle and a skeletal samurai, emblazoned with his clan name: “E-FOUR MAFIA.”

In military ranks, E-4 refers to the fourth pay grade below enlisted troops. Enlisted personnel make up the bulk of the U.S. military, with the bottom four pay grades (E-1 through E-4) accounting for 50% of the total enlisted force. In some services, E-4 is the last pay grade where promotion is based largely on time in the rank, while in other services it’s the first rung on the non-commissioned officer ladder, where you compete with your peers for every step up. But across the board, becoming an E-4 marks a special point in time where responsibility and irreverence are on equal footing: You’ve been in the service long enough to have deployed a time or two, and you’ve (probably) become proficient at your job—but you’re probably still in your first enlistment, treated like a “kid” by anyone with any real authority above you.

Those who find themselves in this gray area are commonly referred to as – and call themselves – “The E-4 Mafia.”

As a result, the E-4 mafia is also occasionally a nuisance to the NCOs, who spend far too many days answering questions from higher-ups about what the “troops” did over the long weekend.

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Not much is known about the identity of this Lincoln sailor, other than that he is an operations specialist, which the Navy describes as “plotters, radio operators, and command and control telephone talkers” in a ship’s Combat Information Center.

But his identity doesn’t really matter. He could be any sailor, soldier, airman, warden, Marine, or any of us who have since been released but fondly remember the days of caffeine- and tobacco-fueled junior enlistment, when we learned to take pride in enduring the daily rigors, and occasional nonsense, that come with service.

Whoever he is, whatever he does (probably keeping watch), the E-4 mafia is represented.

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